Dear Sir/Madam,

Schools are 'failing to teach pupils the basic message of Christianity' for one very good reason: it is a lot of nonsense! (Schools 'failing to teach pupils basic message of Christianity', 15 December 2002).

The basic message of Christianity is that Jesus was the “Son of God”, born of a “virgin”, performed all sorts of “miracles” and himself was “risen from the dead”, having “died for the redemption of our sins”. Come on, do you really expect people – even children - still to believe such nonsense?

It is interesting that you mention some of those polled “believing that Jesus was the son of Joseph, not God”. If you re-read the beginning of the Gospel according to Matthew you will find that he spends the first 16 lines giving in meticulous detail the genealogy of the “Messiah”, all the way from Abraham, via King David to Mary’s husband, Joseph. But if Mary was a virgin and it wasn’t Joseph’s seed which sired Jesus, what is the point of the genealogy? It’s just nonsense.

Some, of course, will make a virtue of believing nonsense, claiming it to be a measure of how deep their faith is! But for my part, I'm sure that God, if he exists, gave us our large brains to reason with and to seek truth, not to rationalise believing the hallowed nonsense of ancient texts.

Of course, the Bible doesn’t only contain nonsense, but also some wisdom, and is of considerable historical and literary value. Its importance for our own history and culture is immeasurable, but as a source of knowledge, spiritual inspiration and moral guidance in the modern world, it is "holy" inadequate.

In fact, it is not only inadequate, but a hindrance, standing in the way, obstructing the view of more enlightened, more truthful, and more useful concepts of God.